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Community Meeting Set Wednesday To Discuss Hartford's Milner School

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE

May 29, 2012

HARTFORD —— School officials have planned a community meeting Wednesday to pitch their proposed Milner School partnership with Jumoke Academy.

"Refreshments will be provided! Children are welcome to attend!" a district flier advertised. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Milner school auditorium, 104 Vine St.

The state Department of Education has not yet announced which schools will be part of the Commissioner's Network, but Superintendent Christina Kishimoto has told the school board that Milner Core Knowledge Academy has been chosen.

Kishimoto said she and Jumoke Academy CEO Michael Sharpe were summoned to Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor's office recently and told the news.

In response, the board on May 15 approved creating a "turnaround" team that includes Kishimoto, Sharpe, Milner staff and parents that will work with the state on an intervention plan that would likely involve an affiliation with Jumoke, a high-achieving prekindergarten to grade 8 charter school located near Milner in the North End.

Connecticut's new education reform bill allows the state to intervene in 25 low-performing schools over the next three years, using turnaround models that can include charter school affiliation. Two weeks before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed the legislation, Kishimoto proposed closing Milner after the academic year and reopening it in 2012-13 as a community school partnered with Jumoke.

The schools describe Wednesday's forum as a question and answer session for parents and a promotion of the charter: "Officials from the Jumoke Academy and Hartford Public Schools will be present to answer your questions and discuss the key elements of Jumoke's success in educating children in our community."

Several board members had chided Kishimoto for moving quickly with a Milner overhaul without enough communication. School policy states that board approval of a school redesign was needed by Dec. 1 of the current academic year, partly to allow for community involvement.